Trivia: When I first started drawing the quarantine strips, I figured it would just be one big storyline. So I did the first set of 13, then a few strips with the townies, then sketched this strip (and tomorrow’s), all the way back in August.

…at which point I decided the whole thing would work better as a series of mini-arcs. Partly so I could keep using this setting to process real-world developments over months and months. Partly so the long-term plot threads could get more buildup, more suspense, more cliffhangers. Partly because the arc of “where’s our package?” –> “at least we got our package” was such a neat little standalone story unit.

So I wrote more strips about the townies to flesh out Part 2, and drew the intermediary storylines, and got back to writing “there’s a working vaccine, even if our main characters can’t it yet” right around the time the IRL news hit “there are several working vaccines, even if I and the people I know can’t get it yet.”

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Yellow: I’m not taking any risks! . . . anymore.

I might not be contagious, but I still feel sick — I get tired just walking across the room. You won’t want me back at the flat until I can get tested.

But don’t stop calling! It’s not like I get any other conversation up here. Nobody else actually lives in this castle except the indentured servants. We have, like, nothing in common — What would we talk abou–

Smartcrystal: BREAKING: News Alert!

Yellow: Hey! [hff hff hff] Did you see the news yet? They just approved a vaccine! Open up and let me tell you all about it!!